AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I originally wanted to write this as a "T" rated story. My muse decided it was meant to be another "M" rated slash story. I am going with his recommendation. ;)

Title: Hunted

Rating: M

Story Premise: G Callen is hunted by a mysterious unsub who will stop at nothing to kill him and anyone who stands in his way. Story begins with no slash relationship between G and Sam. G/Sam slash.

Category: A tragedy/hurt/comfort story.

WARNINGS:

Slash: G/Sam

Darkfic: Story includes mental, emotional, and physical trauma. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with flashbacks, nightmares, reliving the trauma, night terrors, anxiety and panic attacks, etc.

Whump: A major G Callen whump ahead.

DISCLAIMER: NCIS: Los Angeles and its characters are owned by CBS and the producers of it. I do not own anything, but if I did I would torture G Callen more and make him cry and suffer and have plenty of angst. I am grateful to CBS and the producers of NCIS: LA for their contribution to the world of entertainment.

My stories are a work of my imagination and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. This is a work intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by CBS and the producers of NCIS:LA. I gain no profit from the creation and publication of this story.

Crash

Chapter 1

G sucked in air and held his breath. Cold air collided with the heated air in his lungs. He stifled a whimper, holding his breath longer this time, preventing himself from passing out again. A stabbing pain coursed through his lungs, traveled down his body, changing to pulsing and lingering shooting pains in both legs. G heard it again; the faint sound of his partner's voice, sounding as if it came from within and outside his head all at once. He faced the direction of Sam's voice, trying to figure out where his partner was. The only place on his whole body where he felt no aching or stabbing or pulsing or shooting pains was his head. His mind was clear and foggy; clear that he was injured and foggy on how he got injured.

"G?" His partner's familiar voice. Sam sighed. "Going to get you out of there."

Out of where?

"Don't move."

That would be the easiest command he followed. Nothing worked except moving his head. No body part responded to his brain's command to move them. A horrid thought came to mind. I am paralyzed. "Sam?" He needed to know.

"Yes?"

"Why can't I move?"

"I'll get you out in a minute or two."

Maybe his partner wanted to hide the truth from him, keeping him from panicking and keeping him from injuring himself further. A hand thrust through the shattered front windshield into his view, startling him.

"Easy, G."

I am too freaked out.

Sam edged forward on his belly, hands covered with leather work gloves, thrusting a makeshift gurney before him.

He stared at the skinny yet long gurney. "That's… I'm not that small."

"It'll have to do for now, need you out of there, ASAP."

"Something wrong?"

"Not for you to worry about."

Something is wrong. Sam is in a 'do not worry about it' mode. Something is very wrong.

"This is going to be the hardest part for you."

"Meaning?"

"Scream all you want," Sam said, "it's going to hurt no matter how I get you out of there."

"Scream all I want, this doesn't sound good."

"Nope." He knocked the shattered glass pieces out of the window, clearing a path for his partner's body and preventing him from further injury. "Ready, on three."

"After?"

"How about during three?"

"Different for a change."

"One." Sam grabbed G's leather jacket by the collar and shoulders.

"What about my seatbelt?"

"Two, I cut it off first." He sucked in a huge breath and braced his body against the Challenger's hood and sides of the windshield.

"I'm ready."

"Three." Sam yanked G face first through the now cleared and opened windshield and onto his improvised gurney.

G held his breath, unwilling to show any weakness to his partner.

Sam flipped him over onto his back and strapped him down with the seatbelts he had cut from the vehicle.

That single move was more than G could tolerate. He cried out, his body shuddering in response to the two abrupt moves.

"Okay?"

"Maybe."

Sam edged the improvised gurney down the hood of his Challenger until it was level with the fender on the driver's side. He jumped off the car and pulled the gurney off it with his partner's head downward and his feet upward. After easing G's feet onto the ground, Sam positioned two more seatbelts into a makeshift handle at the gurney's top. "I'm taking you up this hill."

"Then what?"

"Coming back down for supplies."

"Wait, you're going to leave me up there alone?"

"Got a better plan?"

G thought about his partner's plan for a couple of minutes. "Nope."

"It's happening." Sam wrapped the straps around his chest and started up the steep hill. "Tell me if this is really hurting you."

"That's a given."

Sam stopped and glanced over his shoulder. "Come on, man, I'm mean worse than now."

"I was razzing you." G smirked.

"I'll razz you all right." Sam chuckled. "At least you haven't lost your whole sense of humor."

"Only half of it." He smirked again afraid to laugh considering how awful he felt when he breathed.

Halfway up the hill, Sam stopped to bend over and catch his breath.

"Where are you hurt?"

"Not important right now."

"Really? Since when are your injuries not important. You know that's not going to—"

"G, you've got extensive injuries." He started up the hill again, huffing more with each step upward.

He watched the sky above him through the swaying, covering of Douglas-fir trees. Darker clouds gathered in the distance while overhead fluffier white clouds formed. "A storm is brewing."

"More than a storm." Sam neared the summit of the steep hill which ended in a deep ravine at the bottom. The ravine started filling with water earlier, just after their car crash. The water level had risen three feet in one hour. The Challenger came to rest twelve feet or so above the ravine and the now rushing water.

Miles from the crash site, a flash flood was triggered by a deluge in the high desert.

Sam dragged the improvised gurney up to the roadside and positioned it under a stand of Douglas-fir trees. "You okay?"

He shivered and jerked against the restraints. "Cold."

"Take my jacket for now."

"No, that's not a good idea."

"It is, man, you're going into shock." He removed his jacket and covered his partner's upper body with it. "I'll return with as much supplies as I can bring back."

"Use this gurney."

"Got another one all stacked with my supplies and ready to go."

"Navy SEAL."

"Eagle Scouts."

"How wrong could I be." G smirked. "Don't be gone for too long."

"You'll miss me, right?"

"Something like that." He was more serious than his partner believed. G feared the worst, dying while Sam was bringing back the supplies. He felt odd, no words to describe the feelings deep within him. G had a tenuous hold on life. A darkness prevailed around him and he slid deeper into it, knowing it would soon consume him. G watched Sam disappear over the cliff. He shuddered and shivered, the jacket failing to contain his body heat and protect his vital organs. His eye lids fluttered several times before he passed out again, allowing the darkness to envelope his mind and body.

What seemed as if it were hours later, a hand shook him hard, bringing him back to a foggy awareness of his surroundings.

"G."

"Sam, you're back."

"And you're not supposed to close those eyes."

"Can't help myself."

Sam covered his partner's entire body with an emergency blanket he salvaged from the crushed trunk. He dressed in his jacket again and zipped it up to his neck. Next he covered G's head and his own head with knit caps. "Stay with me, talk to me."

"What are you doing?"

"Making a shelter in case it rains." Sam sawed off tree limbs.

"A saw."

"I carry one in my trunk."

"Navy SEAL."

"Okay, I'll agree, it's a good fallback." He arranged the tree limbs with substantial fronds in a fan-shaped canopy against the tree. He lashed the limbs together with some rope.

"Rope too."

"I need to get a kit together for your trunk."

"Ah, that would be sweet of you." G smirked.

"It might save your life someday."

"You mean like right now?"

"Yes," Sam said, "I'm going to move you again."

"Joy."

"Ready?"

"No counting?"

"Nope." Sam dragged the makeshift gurney under the canopy of tree limbs.

G gritted his teeth, stifling any out cry.

"And more to cover your body and insulate it from the cold." Sam spread the tree limbs over his partner's body.

"I hope we're not planning to spend the night here."

"We've already done that, eight hours so far."

"Eight hours?" G wondered what his partner had done for the past seven hours.

"Yes." Sam removed his cellphone and checked for reception. "Excellent." He autodialed Hetty's number and allowed it to ring. Odd, no answer. Next, he autodialed Eric's number.

"Sam! Where are you? Hetty's worried sick and—"

"I'd love to fill you in on the details, but I've got limited battery life," he said. "I need to you to find us. I don't have a clue where we are, possibly zero in on the Angeles National Forest close to the high desert. It's just a guess. Triangulate the signal and find us."

"Your signal's coming in strong, and I have a tentative location."

"Don't focus on the vehicle," Sam said. "We're about three-hundred feet away from it."

"Three hundred?" G asked.

Sam hushed his partner with a wave of his hand.

"I see three GPS signals."

"Two at my location."

"Yes."

"Zero in on those two and forget the third," he said. "I'm shutting down the second signal to conserve power." Sam turned off G's cellphone.

"I've got Hetty on the line."

"Interesting."

"Why?"

"I tried to contact her first."

"Mr. Hanna, I was indisposed at the time and I'm now available," she said. "We're sending transportation to you—"

"Hetty, G needs immediate medical care."

"Emergency?"

"Yes," he said, glancing sideways at his partner.

"I'll send a medivac for the two of you," Hetty said. "Your Challenger totaled?"

"Yes." Sam sighed. "Unfortunately, better it than us. I'll keep the signal open on this cellphone. Need to tend to G." He ended the call and set the cellphone aside.

"You don't know where we are, Eagle Scout."

"Nope, you?"

"Angeles National Forest close to the desert."

"That's cheating, G, I told Eric that."

"Yep." He smirked.

"Glad you think that's funny."

"Sort of." What was not funny was the growing lack of feeling in his arms and legs. The darkness closed in on him again, threatening to envelope him in its dark shroud and consume him forever. "Sam."

"Yes?"

"Can you… I want the straps off… I… need you to hold me… it's coming again."

"What's coming?"

"The darkness."

Sam scooted over to his partner's side, removed the straps holding him to the improvised gurney and threw the fronds off him. He wrapped him in the emergency blanket, cocooning his partner's body.

"Hold me… I'm losing this battle."

"What are you talking about?"

"I'm… hell… dying."

"You're fine."

"No! My arms and legs… there's nothing… I feel nothing… please…."

"This is going to hurt, a lot."

"I don't care, not now, scared of dying."

Sam lifted his partner onto his lap and tucked the emergency blanket around G's limp body. "Don't you dare do this to me."

"Do what to you?"

"Leave me like this."

"What about me?" G shuddered. "Hold me… tighter against you. Too cold."

Sam drew G into his warmth, holding him as close as possible. "You're going to make it, you hear me, you're going to survive."

"Tell that to my arms and legs." He shivered hard, his body spasming from the waves of shudders rippling throughout his body.

"You hold on. You do whatever it takes to survive. You hear me, hear me?"

"I'm trying, Sam, trying hard but it's here, the dark, foreboding feeling which threatens to overwhelm and overtake me." He held his breath again, keeping the pain controlled for another minute or two. Afterward, he released it in slow staccato breaths, not wanting to feel the intense burning in his chest. "Why did you move me up here?"

"The water is rising. A storm is coming. What else? No cellphone reception in the ravine."

"Three-hundred feet, Sam, that's a long ways for you, dragging that makeshift gurney up a steep hill."

"I did it for you," Sam said, "you're my partner."

G smiled. It was the only thing which did not hurt him. His head had started to pound right after Sam called Hetty. Probably high blood pressure from the stress of knowing she now knew where they were and she would be angry. He expected it. It was his idea to search for clues to the ops mission out here in the mountains, close to the high desert. Now he had paid for his curiosity. He hoped it did not cost him his life.

He sank closer to the darkness, allowing it to touch the fringes of his mind and body, and hearing it calling his name again made it easier to let go. His eyelids, heavy with drowsiness, fluttered and closed.

Thanks for reading.